There is literally no way the white stripes would have ascended to the phenomenon they became without considerable hype, they would have had a following but nowhere near that level, the NME were a cog in the hype machine. bands would try and break the UK first to benefit from this hype machine, and courted the NME’s favour because of their influence. Are we denying the music media played a crucial role as gatekeepers? if not, how could the NME not have been a big part of that? what else was there, the music monthly’s, newspapers, cable tv music channels and radio. Personally I don’t remember any indie type bands being championed in other places before the NME, that was their whole brand, getting in their first on the ground floor, who they covered others followed.
their decline in influences is down to a number of factors, rise of internet, fragmentation of audiences, less need for reviews when you can listen yourself, free internet music writing. their model didnt work anymore, doesnt say anything about their influence when it did work.
i’d turn it around. although there are lots of thriving niche genres and lots of acts with mainstream success, there haven’t been any of these big ‘movements’ where bland indie music has captured the publics imagination since the decline of the NME either
I feel like i’m taking crazy pills
